2022 vs 2023 GS22 -Surf and Ski Wakes...?

[Arctic_Slalom]

PN Folks,

I've spent the past (15) years in two different Malibu's and put about ~1000 hours on them, combined. We currently own a 2004 Malibu Sunscape 21' LSV (340 Monsoon, diamond hull, wedge, tower, etc.). My wife and I are looking at upgrading our '04 Malibu and have been looking at the newer GS22. I still like to slalom ski a bit here and there and I think a "crossover" boat would fit our needs. I'm a recreational skier and have never run a slalom course. Our boat use is roughly 50% surfing, 20% tubing, 20% skiing/wakeboarding and another 10% hanging out and cruising the lake. Slowly but surely, we have moved to surfing quite a bit. We also have a 23' pontoon which gets used for most cruising & swimming missions. We have a lake home in Minnesota on a 1400 acre lake. A few questions about the Nautique GS22:

-How is the slalom skiing between 32-36 mph on the GS22?
-How big of a difference is there between 2022 and 2023 GS22 for surfing (that's the newer design, correct)?
-How big of a difference is there between 2022 and 2023 GS22 for slalom skiing?
-Is the GS24 fairly similar in terms of ski/surf wake when compared to the GS22? It feels like a GS24 is a really big boat for us.
-Is there much difference between these models (2022 vs 2023) in terms of storage?
-Are most of the newer Nautiques a closed coolant system? What does this mean in terms of winterizing?
-Is the PCM 5.3 Liter plenty of power for the GS22 when it's fully loaded and with 8-10 ppl for surfing (MN is 1000' elevation).
-Which Malibu boat model's surf wake is comparable to a loaded down 2023 GS22? Wakesetter 22 LSV?

My wife and I don't buy boats very often and whatever we buy we will likley keep for 12-15 years. After looking at Malibu, Centurion and Nautique, we really like the build quality, fit and finish of the Nautique boats. We appreciate any insight about the GS22 any of you can offer up. Thanks so much! -CR

[hal2814]

I’ll share what I know. The old hull GS22/24 got a revision in the 2020/2019 models, respectively to address some surf wave issues. I personally wouldn’t consider anything older for surfing. The new hulls came in 2023/2024, respectively.

-For slalom I don’t have experience with the GS22. The old hull GS24 wake is better than it has any right to be but I think someone who rides competitively would find the rooster tail a little too far back. I assume the GS22 would be similar. A neighbor at my marina regularly barefoots with his old hull GS24 and loves it for that.
-I did get to surf a new hull GS22. The difference is massive. The older GS needs literal tons of extra ballast even over the pro option to get a reasonable wave. The new GS22 does it right out of the box.
-I didn’t get to ski it so I don’t know
-We got a much better surf wave out of the old hull GS24 compared to the old hull GS22 but it took a lot more work and extra ballast to get it right. No experience skiing the GS22.
-storage is very similar on the two models.
-closed cooling for the engine. The exhaust is still sea water. Winterization is either three hoses or a series of blue plugs plus sea strainer canister. Either way is simple but the hoses make it a 5 minute job. You still have to do it but worst case is you lose your exhaust manifolds if you don’t instead of losing the engine.
-On our old hull GS24 with the base engine we added 3500ish lbs over factory ballast and the stock propeller couldn’t keep up. We went lower pitch which was fine for surf but led to 4800ish rpm at slalom speed. The new hull GS22 we demoed was a packed boat and handled well as setup from the factory with the base engine for surfing.
-I’m not the person to ask. I’m not a fan of the wave Malibu puts out, especially the LSV hulls I’ve been on. Plenty of people do like it so it’s obviously just personal preference on my part and not some objectively better/worse kind of thing.

[FMSKI]

I was looking into the GS boats, as a guy stopped by my dock with the latest one, in teal. I asked him about skiing it, but they don't.

For slalom skiing the boats draft in inches, is the wake magnitude indicator. Displacement is the weight per hull volume. Recreational skiers need good long-line wakes. The wake on the GS boats is nothing short of horrific at those lines. See Charlie Ross trying to ski it on Youtube. If you can shorten the rope to 32 or 35 and up the speed to 36mph, there is more hull lift and you can zing through the crossover zone.

A 216V has promise, with a draft of 28", same as the SV211. My buddy threw the handle behind my 211 a while back, and my son is suing me for whiplash after crashing this weekend (his binding did release . Both citing horrible wakes. For comparison the Ski Nautique is 21", the 200 is 22", 196's are 23-24 etc.

Surf the opposite is true, you need to slam the hull for maximum draft. The design issues engineers have is they have to meet build standards and that means building a barge of sorts to shoulder all the weight, and move it. Then try to make it all look good.

The new GS is a 32" draft, the old one is 27" there's your difference. I would argue add weight to the 27" for best ski 'n surf